


Plz hug? No touch! Only hug!

by Jadeile



Category: Hazbin Hotel (Web Series)
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Kinda, Swearing, that's the only reason for the rating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:27:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27961511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jadeile/pseuds/Jadeile
Summary: Alastor requires a hug, except it can't be an actual hug. Good thing Husk is a stretchy-ass cat, because otherwise he wouldn't be able to bend over backwards to such extremes for his one finicky dipshit of a friend.
Relationships: Alastor & Husk (Hazbin Hotel), Alastor/Husk (Hazbin Hotel), if you wear your shipping goggles
Comments: 17
Kudos: 194





	Plz hug? No touch! Only hug!

**Author's Note:**

> If this looks familiar, it's because you might have read this in my writing blog before.

Husk was casually lounging in the hotel's communal living room, feeling thoroughly disinclined to open the bar yet – it was way too early to get enough customers to make it worth his damn while. So instead, he was sitting on the couch, idly working on a sudoku puzzle in one of the "recreational activity books” that Charlie had placed around the room. It was one way to kill time, and the hard puzzles at the end of the book actually posed an intellectual challenge that the crossword puzzles in the newspaper sorely lacked.

He lifted his eyes from the book when he heard another person enter the room. Mind, he didn’t need to look up to know who it was – as Alastor’s shoes had a very distinctive sound to them thanks to the hoof-prints on the bottom – but look he did, and as he did so he noticed that something about the way Alastor carried himself was… off. Or maybe it was his expression? Or his sound scape? Fuck if he knew what it was exactly, but he immediately knew it was _something_ anyway.

He said nothing while Alastor made a beeline to the couch and sat down next to him, just a hair’s breadth away, their sides and legs barely not touching. It made Husk way too aware of that side of his body, and how the smallest movement on his part might cross that line. It was damn uncomfortable.

“What the fu-”

“Husk”, Alastor said, cutting him off. Husk snapped his mouth shut and glared. “I need a hug.”

Wait, what the fuck? He needed a-

“But you can’t touch me.”

...Cancel the previous inquiry. What the actual fuck right now??

“...You mean you’ll hug me and I can’t return it?” Husk asked, even though the way Alastor had said it made him think that wasn’t going to be it. That, and he would have done so already if that was the case. It’s not like the asshole ever held back on that regard.

“No”, Alastor said, predictably. Fuck. “I mean there can be no physical contact involved.”

“You do realize you’re asking for something that is literally not fucking possible, right?” Husk asked slowly, eyeing Alastor warily.

Alastor sighed, a smile-y frown on his face and fists clenched. Frustrated. “Yes. But I need it anyway. I feel rather like I will start tearing this place apart in discontentment if I don’t receive affectionate touch. But at the same time the thought of any kind of a touch makes my skin feel like… like there are hundreds of spiders running all over it as well as underneath. Both options are unbearable and it’s driving me insane. Please help me.”

Okay. Fuck. Shit. What was he supposed to say to that? What was he supposed to fucking do?

He knew ‘nothing’ wasn’t an option. Firstly, Alastor was most likely not kidding about tearing this place apart. He absolutely would do that. But more importantly, he actually asked Husk for help. With that exact word. With a ‘please’ even.

The fucking Radio Demon didn’t ask people for help. Not even his friends. He demanded things. He threatened. He blackmailed. He manipulated. He implied. But he didn’t outright ask for it.

...Fuck damn it. Time to figure something out, and preferably right now.

“Okay. Okay”, Husk said, put the sudoku book and the mechanical pencil away, and crossed his arms. “Just… give me a second to think.”

Alastor nodded, and looked at the microphone stand he was rolling between his fingers. Fidgeting. Fucking hell.

How to hug the jackass without touching him? What would feel like a hug without physically being one?

He was not drunk enough for this.

It took him a long moment, but he did come up with something. It was stupid, but it was better than having no plan whatsoever.

He took a deep breath, released it, and then started purring. He saw Alastor turn to look at him from his peripheral vision, but didn’t react to it. This was embarrassing enough as it was.

Another long moment passed, and Husk was starting to regret even trying this idiotic bullshit, but then Alastor leaned closer to him. Still not touching, but now probably close enough to feel the slight vibration. Maybe. Fuck if Husk knew how his purring felt like to others. It was promising anyway.

Neither of them said anything. It was really fucking awkward. Alastor was usually a fucking motormouth of the highest order, but he chose now to be silent?

Husk filled the silence by purring louder. He saw Alastor’s fingers twitch. The microphone stand had vanished and his hands were on his thighs.

Husk uncrossed his own arms and mimicked Alastor’s pose, except he left the paw closest to Alastor palm up as an invitation. If Alastor wanted it at some point.

No reaction that he could see. No matter.

The next thing he did was slowly unfold the wing on Alastor’s side and not-quite drape it over his friend’s shoulders. It hovered behind his back and next to his shoulder, as close as they were sitting, but also as far. Not touching. Just present. A hair’s breadth away.

Alastor shivered, but stayed where he was.

Purring and silence.

He felt Alastor’s warmth on his wing and side, and imagined Alastor felt his in return. He stretched his wing further so that he could semi-fold it and cover more of Alastor’s side and front, but still keep from touching him.

Alastor sighed in what he was almost certain was contentment, lifted the hand nearest to Husk and hovered it right over the palm Husk had left open for him. He kept it there, not touching, for a long moment, but then finally pressed it down, his fingers lining up with Husk’s claws and his palm meeting with Husk’s heart shaped paw pad.

His palm was very warm.

“Thank you”, Alastor said quietly.

Husk nodded, and glanced at him from the corner of his eye. “Anytime. ...But I will hold this against you the next time you’re up to your fucking bullshit.”

He wouldn’t.

“Of course”, Alastor said with a small chuckle, and tilted his head towards Husk. His ear tickled lightly on Husk’s ear. Barely touching, but it was still a touch.

Husk hummed in response, and kept on purring.


End file.
